In recent years, mattresses and other bedding materials have been evolving from simple cushioned spring frames to more complex sleep systems in order to meet changing consumer needs and demands. For example, various type or style pillow top mattresses and mattresses using visco-elastic materials, such as “memory-foam” or other similar materials, are becoming increasingly popular with consumers as consumers have begun to demand more variations in comfort to fit their differing needs and preferences. In addition, demand has increased for more decorative or aesthetically pleasing appearances for mattresses, box springs and other bedding materials, especially for higher-end, more expensive bedding materials. Mattress manufacturers have begun to recognize that purchasers of such expensive, higher-end mattresses and other, similar bedding materials also are looking for more aesthetically pleasing or decorative looks for such mattresses, especially when they are paying higher prices for such mattresses and bedding materials.
An increasingly popular style of mattress being sold today is the so-called “tufted” mattress in which a mattress, with or without decorative stitching or scrollwork patterning, will have a series of tufts or “rosettes” affixed or inserted at spaced locations across the top of the mattress. These rosettes can be formed from loops of yarns, from buttons, or other decorative materials and generally are punched into the mattresses. Such tufted mattresses generally have been viewed as being in a category of higher-end, more expensive types of mattresses, due to the much more labor intensive and thus more expensive process of manufacture for such tufted mattresses.
In the past, such tufted decorations typically have been applied to mattresses by hand, by an operator physically punching or inserting the rosette, or a thread or yarn attached to the rosette, through the mattress after the mattress has been assembled, using a hand tool and one or more series of clamps to hold and compress the mattress. More recently, machinery has been developed to help clamp and compress substantially the entire mattress, with the mattress in a substantially uniformly compressed state for application of the tufts or rosettes thereto. However, even with the use of such machinery or systems for clamping and compressing the mattresses for application of tufts, the actual insertion of the tufts still generally is required to be a manual operation with an operator physically inserting each tuft or rosette into/through the mattress by hand. As a result, while some of the labor and associated costs therewith have been reduced by such equipment, the production of tufted mattresses and other, similar tufted bedding articles still remains a largely manual or labor intensive operation, which limits production and keeps the cost of such tufted bedding at a generally higher level.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for automated systems and methods for application of tufted decorations to mattresses and other, similar bedding materials that addresses the foregoing and other related and unrelated problems in the art.